As it says on the Reisetbauer distillery website, this is the first 12-year-old whisky from Austria. They go on to say “this single malt whisky is convincing on the palate with wonderful notes of chocolate and coca and a very dense, fruity aroma of malt. Its maturation in Trockenbeerenauslese casks gives it a dry and sweet character with a slightly smoky note.” Trockenbeerenauslese is a German language wine term for a medium to full-body dessert wine.

82.25/100 is a very good score, especially when one voter marks this whisky down with 73/100 and says “this doesn’t taste like a Whisky, it’s a Grappa with some special off-notes. Dominated by the wine casks used”. I’ve never tried Grappa so I can’t judge until I do. Another voter says “a perfect whisky”. The Grappa guy is in the minority, thankfully. If the criticism is purely based on an unfamiliar taste you have to keep in mind how far apart some Islay malts are from Speyside ones. They’re both whisky but the peaty, sometimes medicinal qualities of certain Islay single malts takes time to get used to. The use of wine casks in the whisky industry is becoming more prevalent. As it increases people will get used to it and accept it as another variant in the wonderful spectrum of whisky flavours.

86.5/100 in the Whisky Bible 2017 classifies this German single malt as “very good to excellent whisky definitely worth buying”.

When I think whisky I think Austria! Actually I don’t and nor would most people but this bottle from the Reisetbauer distillery in Austria ticks a new country off my list of world whisky examples. Two different bottles of Reisetbauer appeared in a UK auction and I bid on them hoping I’d be lucky enough to get one. I got both. Hurray! Although searching into the quality of this 1998 bottling leaves me uncertain….

Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible 2009 mentions this Reisetbauer 1998, scoring it 86.5/100 and saying “a large, rambling malt bursting at the seams with character and charm. Ten years in the cask appear to have seen off the worst of the odd distilling blemish”…..hang on, did he say 10 years? But this is a 7yo! He gives the official Reisetbauer 7yo 76/100 so where does he get 10 years maturation from? The Reisetbauer 1998 is 56%, which Mr Murray’s review agrees with. I’m sure he’s talking about the same whisky but has incorrectly assumed it’s 10 years old rather than 7. He goes on to say “bravo bottling at full strength, because the spices are seen to best effect, as is the barley which tries to find a sugar course, but narrowly fails. Substantial weight throughout and an excellent length to the finish. The toasty dryness is also a delight. I can’t wait to see further bottlings from this obviously polished distillery. Impressive and desirable.”

In the 2006 Bible Jim Murray scores the Reisetbauer 1996 a lowly 71/100 and the Reisetbauer 1997 creeps up to 73/100 so I’m glad to see my 1998 version has reached his classification of “very good to excellent whisky definitely worth buying”. Not that 4 voters on Whiskybase agree where the average score is a deflating 72.25/100. It seems the Reisetbauer distillery hasn’t convinced everyone, yet.